The Effect of Hidden Picture Game in Increasing The Students’ Vocabulary (INTRODUCTION)

The Effect of Hidden Picture Game in Increasing The Students’ Vocabulary (INTRODUCTION)
 
Written by Ari Julianto


A. The Background of the Study
English is a foreign language in Indonesia and it is very difficult to know English language for Indonesians especially those who live in the village. Many Indonesians still use regional languages.  Our duty, as teachers, now is how to teach English to the students in the school especially those who live in there. It will be very interesting to the teachers to look for several ways in teaching English to the students. The simple way to know English vocabulary is by using technology.

Vocabulary is the most useful components to learn English. Without it, we cannot speak, read and write in English. From a word we can make sentences to combine a song, poem etc. Based on the researcher’s experience in PPL (Teaching Practice), many students especially in junior high school are lack of vocabulary. They read the text but they missed conception in ideas and they did not know the meaning. They answered the questions but they had mistake in answers. They had difficulty in making conversation because they were lack of vocabulary. For example: What is there on the table? – That is a small plate (should be a saucer).

Tiner (1997: 50) states that the normal child’s experience with reading will result in lacquering a constantly enlarging stock of sigh words, he will have established automatic stimulus response patterns for dozens of frequently used words such as that, with, be, are, and, was, it, the, in, to, that, you, they, said, whom, can, and. A teacher must be sensitive to environment, start from human resources such as teachers, administrators, parents, material resources such as books, media, games, filmstrips, school facilities or services resources such as buildings, laboratory, library.  A teacher must have variation methods in supporting the students. Without motivation, it will make the students get bored in learning, and finally it would be influencing the students’ ability. Finochiaro (1996: 26) states that important factors related to the second/foreign language learning are curriculum, students, teachers, media, materials and methods.

Moreover, Finochiaro (1996: 30) states that learning English vocabulary through games is very interesting to the students. They are very conscious to look for the appropriate words to fill the answer. They practice their competence indirectly when they do the exercises. The competence, in the other hand, is holding an important thing in learning language. To communicate fluently, a student must have some words and it is very impossible to do the conversation if they do not know the vocabularies.

A child acquires knowledge of sentences not only as grammatical, but also as appropriate to the context in which they are made. Hymes (1982: 277) states, “A child knows when and when not to speak, what to talk about with whom, when, where, and in what manner.”

Teachers across the United States have learned it is beneficial to use games when teaching ESL (English as a second language). They find when students are relaxed, they are more likely to retain information and understand their material more quickly. Games in the classroom force interaction and communication among the students. The teacher makes sure everyone has a turn to participate in the game and assists with communication wherever necessary. Students playing games to learn English strive to win the game. Through their language usage, the students learn to master the language, thus instilling a sense of accomplishment when their hard work helps them win.

Based on the explanation above, the researcher would like to offer an audiovisual media, Hidden Pictures Games as a media to build up the students’ ability in vocabulary. In circumstance where  the students used regional language, limited facilities, limited resources, the researcher will giving the spirits to the teachers and the students. That was some reason why the researcher would be analyzing the students’ vocabulary by using a Hidden Pictures Games as a students’ achievement. And finally, the researcher hopes, the research would be giving the positive influenced and there was no reason to stop the study.

Yong Mei and Yu-jing (2000: 30) said that games used to learn English are relatively simple to create. A teacher can use the games to control the overall classroom atmosphere and maintain a structure to the English lessons. A game helps a teacher easily assess where each student stands, and the teacher can take notes on the students' levels while the students are having fun.

Based on the explanation above, we can conclude that the students’ problems in vocabulary can be in the lack of vocabulary, identifying the things, understanding the English word and recognizing the new thing in their vocabulary list.

One of the advantages of games to learn English is a game motivates students to progress in the use of the language and develop a real understanding of English. This is particularly true of games that challenge students in a manner that pushes their language skills without making them feel defeated. A game helps teachers create particular context where language is most meaningful and useful.

B.  The Identification of the Problem
The problems of this study are identified as follows:
1. the effect of using Hidden Pictures Game in increasing the students’ vocabulary,
2. the percentage of effect by using Hidden Pictures Game in increasing the students’ vocabulary .

C.  The Scope and Limitation
This study discusses about the effect of using Hidden Pictures Game to the students’ vocabulary. The Hidden Pictures Game is used for this research from http://www.highlightskids.com that can be accessed directly via internet and the book Highlight Kids in which the copies of the contents can be given to the students. The limitation is the students’ achievement in learning vocabulary taught by Hidden Pictures Game. the location and the sample are in the first class students of .......... in Jalan..........of 2010/2011 academic year.

D. The Formulation of the Problem
The formulation of the problem would be formulating as follows:
1.  is there any effect in using Hidden Pictures Game in increasing the students’ vocabulary?
2.  how many percentage the effect of using Hidden Pictures Game in increasing the students’ vocabulary?

E. The Objectives of the Study
The objectives of this study are focused on:
1. to find out the effect of Hidden Pictures Game to the students’ achievement in vocabulary, and
2.  to find out the percentage the effect of using Hidden Pictures Game in increasing the students’ vocabulary.

F.  The Significances of the Study
The researcher expects to give the valuable contribution for those involve with this subject of the study. The significances of the study are as follows:
1. The result of this analysis will be some valuable information for the teachers,
2. The teachers who teach the students, because the finding of this study will enrich the teacher’s method in teaching-learning process especially in vocabulary,
3. A game helps teachers create particular context where language is most meaningful and useful. This makes the students want to communicate with others so they can get their points across during the game,
4. Also, the teachers can run through more material in the same amount of time than through straight lecturing,
5. Games offer a student a sense of accomplishment. Other students will work harder to win and in the end will be learning English through the game,
6. Hopefully, it will be useful for the students so that they can build up their vocabulary.

References
Tiner, Pieter A. 1997. Learning through Comics. London: Oxford University PressTown.
Finocciaro, M. 1996. Visual Aids in Teaching English as a Second Language. New York: Hunter College.
Hymes,1982. Building English Skills.  Washington: MacDougal.
Yin Yong Mei and Jang Yu-jing. 2000. Using Games in an EFL Class for Children. Beijing: Daejin University ELT Research Paper.